New Charter Schools Approved

Nine new charter schools have been approved by the State Board of Education. They were fast-tracked after the legislature eliminated the cap on charter schools last summer.

Dave DeWitt: All nine schools were eventually approved by the State Board of Education, after some discussion. Many of the questions raised came from State Treasurer Janet Cowell, who wondered, among other things, about the future bond ratings for school districts that lose students to charters.

But in the end, the separate votes on each school were mostly unanimous.

Darrell Allison applauded the decisions. He is on the board of one of the schools and is also the President of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. He points out that only 9 of the 27 charter schools that applied for fast-track approval made it through the process.

Darrell Allison: That says something. This idea that we eliminate the cap on public charter schools and somehow it would be the wild, wild west and charter schools are going to pop up everywhere. Well, That’s not the case.

Allison says that 80 or 90 schools are likely to apply for charters during what he calls “the next wave.”
Several of the local public school systems in which the charters will operate opposed their applications.